It's A Bird, It's A Plane... It's A Super Reef!

Exciting news today from the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) indicates that some African coral reefs are remarkably resilient to the effects of climate change. These so-called super reefs have a combination of factors allowing them to tolerate unusual sea surface temperature fluctuations that would cause other coral reefs to bleach. And even when bleaching has occurred, these super reefs recover rapidly.

What's the secret combination of factors? Well, it comes as no great surprise that key to maintaining resilient reefs is the presence of active fisheries management. Coral reef areas with fishery closures and managed fisheries results in an abundance of grazing reef fish species that feed on algae that can otherwise smother corals when reef fish are depleted.

The other finding was that the geophysical structure of the East African reefs plays a major factor in their resiliency. Coral reefs in Tanzania experience an unusually high variation in current flow and water temperature. These factors allow for greater survivorship of a higher diversity of coral species, including those that can quickly re-colonize after bleaching.

WCS announced the news earlier today during the International Coral Reef Initiative (ICRI) General Meeting in Phuket, Thailand. ICRI is a partnership among governments, international organizations, and NGOs that collaborate to preserve coral reefs ecosystems. Thanks to a crummy economy and the need for non-profits to tighten our belts in unsure philanthropic times, I was unable to join my coral reef conservation colleagues this week in Thailand to hear the news in person. Regardless, the news wire offers promising ideas for climate change adaptation management in coral reef conservation.

Now if we can just get some encouraging news on ocean acidification.